[Changleen]

The Experts Say: It's a Police State

Critics of the policies of George W. Bush are often greeted with this response: "Who are you to denounce the president? Don't you think he's privy to more information than you are? Don't you think he has all kinds of experts giving him the full picture, which you will never know?"

OK, fair enough. Let's see what the experts -- those privy to the full picture, to the secret intelligence, those long schooled in policy and analysis -- have to say. For example, what does the man who was George W. Bush's director of homeland defense on the National Security Council on September 11, 2001, think of the "war on terror" launched by George W. Bush after September 11, 2001?

He thinks Bush has exploited the attack to install a police state in America, that's what George W. Bush's director of homeland defense on September 11, 2001, thinks. But let Tom Maertens speak for himself, as he does most directly in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (via Cursor):

Five years after 9/11, it's clear that the Bush administration's costly War on Terror has failed on two counts. It has undermined our civil liberties and made the world more dangerous. The direct cost of the war in Iraq, according to Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel economist, has already exceeded $1 trillion, including long-term veterans' care and similar costs. Along with the war has come enormous destruction and loss of life, and major damage to our international standing. And there are more terrorists in the world than ever before, a fact the administration plays up to curtail our freedoms. In the aftermath of 9/11, the administration succeeded in passing an extreme version of an internal security law, called the USA Patriot Act. It permits secret arrests, sneak and peek searches, and obtaining bank, credit, library and Internet records, all without a warrant. The administration also instituted wiretaps and intercepts on millions of Americans' e-mail messages and phone calls without warrants, a program recently ruled unconstitutional by a federal court.

In 2005, Bush quietly created the National Clandestine Service, which authorizes the CIA to operate within the United States -- despite past abuses such as Operation Chaos -- and reinstituted domestic spying by the military through the Counter Intelligence Field Activity (CIFA), in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. He also created the National Security Service, putting elements of the FBI under his direct control, the closest we have had to a secret police agency in our 200-year history. The FBI now sends out 30,000 National Security Letters per year, demanding personal information without benefit of a warrant. It has imposed gag orders on every aspect of NSLs, making it illegal to reveal that one has been received. How does this differ from secret police tactics?

… Perhaps no event demonstrates more clearly the dangerous authoritarianism of the Bush crowd than the arrest of two American citizens, Jose Padilla and Yasir Hamdi, who were held for 3½ years in solitary confinement with no charges, no court appearance and no lawyer. The Bush administration declared them "enemy combatants" -- Enemies of the State -- and threw them in prison indefinitely, just like a Third World dictatorship.

Winston Churchill once said: "The power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist."

How far can the Bush administration go? Steven Bradbury of the Justice Department recently suggested before a congressional committee that the president might have the power to order the killing of terrorist suspects inside the United States.

Government assassination squads? In America?

… James Madison once warned: "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." The Bush administration has already exploited the war in Iraq and fears about terrorism to stampede the American people into accepting an astonishing curtailment of their freedoms and growing lawlessness by the government. If the administration chooses to engage in the neocons' endless, global War for Civilization, American democracy will ultimately be one of the casualties.

AP:

Everyone's a suspect in El Dorado, Kansas, a sign of things to come?

EL DORADO, KAN. – Random drug testing of student athletes has become as routine as study hall and lunch at many high schools across the country. But this factory town outside Wichita is taking testing to the extreme.

It is instituting random drug screening for all middle and high school students participating in — or even just attending — any extracurricular activity. That includes sports, clubs, field trips, driver’s education, even school plays.

Those who don’t sign consent forms cannot attend games, go to school dances, join a club or so much as park their car on school property.

Administrators insist the district does not have a drug problem, and say the new policy — one of the toughest in the nation — is aimed at keeping it that way.

“We see this in the best interest of our students. We don’t see this is a punitive measure,” said Superintendent Tom Biggs.

Since the policy was enacted this school year, at least 425 students out of 600 high schoolers, and 215 of the 315 middle school students, have signed forms consenting to random urine tests for alcohol, tobacco and drugs.

 

[chicodude]

If I lived in that town I would just show up smoking the FATTIEST blunt I could possibly roll.


And no duh about the first article. It's going to get worse before it gets better

 

[Toshi]

while i agree with the conclusion of the first article, i don't really see how the second is directly relevant.

 

[rockwool]

The patriot act permits obtaining library records!!! Unbeliiiiiivable...

"Jose Padilla and Yasir Hamdi, who were held for 3½ years in solitary confinement with no charges, no court appearance and no lawyer."
-Wasn't Kevin Mitnick in jail for 6 years without a court sentence?

James Madison smoked a peace pipe and foretold the future like a rasta man...

They forgot to mention the over one hundred FEMA future prison/consentrationcamps.

 

[rockwool]

while i agree with the conclusion of the first article, i don't really see how the second is directly relevant.

It wouldn't have been possible pre 911/Patriot Act.

 

[$tinkle]

It is instituting random drug screening for all middle and high school students participating in — or even just attending — any extracurricular activity.

clearly, this is the direct result of bushie mcChimplerBurton's failed domestic policies.

these kids should be allowed to be intoxicated, stoned, tweeked, or in every form impaired so their resultant academic failures (only matched by their criminal accomplishments) can steer them into the cattle lines so that they can be used as cannon fodder for this illegal war on manufactured terror.

 

[valve bouncer]

clearly, this is the direct result of bushie mcChimplerBurton's failed domestic policies.

these kids should be allowed to be intoxicated, stoned, tweeked, or in every form impaired so their resultant academic failures (only matched by their criminal accomplishments) can steer them into the cattle lines so that they can be used as cannon fodder for this illegal war on manufactured terror.

I can't think of any good reason why this testing regime shouldn't spread to all of the population, all of the time. After all if you're not doing anything wrong then you shouldn't have anything to "FEAR".

 

[rockwool]

Civil liberties are for communist wussies!

 

[Changleen]

while i agree with the conclusion of the first article, i don't really see how the second is directly relevant.

The mindset required to launch such a programme would have never existed pre 9/11 IMO. See 'Dazed and Confused'...

 

[Transcend]

clearly, this is the direct result of bushie mcChimplerBurton's failed domestic policies.

these kids should be allowed to be intoxicated, stoned, tweeked, or in every form impaired so their resultant academic failures (only matched by their criminal accomplishments) can steer them into the cattle lines so that they can be used as cannon fodder for this illegal war on manufactured terror.

No one should be allowed to drink or smoke either. Both of those harm the GDP of america and cost more money than some highschooler on pot ever would.

 

[Silver]

I give it less than a year before some dumbass school in Fundyville has mandatory virginity checks for the cheerleading team...

 

[Transcend]

I give it less than a year before some dumbass school in Fundyville has mandatory virginity checks for the cheerleading team...

Ya...he'll wanna poke them himself to make sure. It's always do as I say not as I do with that bunch.

 

[$tinkle]

I give it less than a year before some dumbass school in Fundyville has mandatory virginity checks for the cheerleading team...

that's ok, we have

btw, cheerleading has to follow strict guidelines

 

[DaveW]

No one should be allowed to drink or smoke either. Both of those harm the GDP of america and cost more money than some highschooler on pot ever would.

If the US is anything like NZ... The taxation of tabaco and alcohol far exceeds the cost of subsequent healthcare, social law and order costs.

Dope is NOT a tax revenue collecting product.......

 

[MMike]

NPR was talking about that that other day. "they' say that the US has sunk back into the WW2 era "world communism bogey man/MacCarthyism" fear. But now terror is the bogey man.

 

[Changleen]

Frankly to a concerned outsider, the US has become a big symbol of oppression which is worrying beyond the invective we all throw around on teh monkey.

Tui (a local beer company) have a series of adverts which start with a proposition, then always follow it with 'Yeah, right!' Kind of - 'not!'. So like they might have "I respect your rights as a vegetarian" - followed by "Yeah right!" (Google Image 'Tui Ads' for more) - Anyway, they just ran one: "I'm flying to Europe via the US". That should give you an idea of the level that US distrust has become ingrained.

 

[rockwool]

btw, cheerleading has to follow strict guidelines

""You've got children seeing things that their parents would rather them not see," Mr Van Arsdale said."

Arsdale? I bet a dude with a name like that likes it up the Gary and would love to see the players running around in jockstraps alone...

 

[Changleen]

Rockwool, you're SOOO English.... "Up the Gary" !!!

 

[rockwool]

Frankly to a concerned outsider, the US has become a big symbol of oppression which is worrying beyond the invective we all throw around on teh monkey.

It has and it is regretfull from one perspective. From the other it is now easier to see its real face for people that aren't into parsing society/politics.
Over here people in general have always found the US an extreme society in many ways but never bothered more than shruging their shoulders and laughing at it. With dubya that has changed. Policies that once were vailed are now obvious or even outspoken.

 

[rockwool]

Rockwool, you're SOOO English.... "Up the Gary" !!!

My best mate is from Chorley, Lancashire. :biggrin:

 

[Kevin]

So how long till the new elections?
Bush better hurry up if he wants to delete Amendment XXII before 2008...

 

[DRB]

They forgot to mention the over one hundred FEMA future prison/consentrationcamps.

100? Oh that's way off according to these folks.

http://www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1062

 

[rockwool]

100? Oh that's way off according to these folks.

http://www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1062

Yeah, I've heard it was more but didn't remember exactly how many and therefore kept it low.

" The Rex 84 Program was established on the reasoning that if a "mass exodus" of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA."
-It's them damn dirty Mexicans effinit up for you good, clean, honest and hard working people again.

This one was my favorite decree:
"EXECUTIVE ORDER 11921

allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money in U.S. financial institution in any undefined national emergency. It also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President, Congress cannot review the action for six months. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has broad powers in every aspect of the nation. General Frank Salzedo, chief of FEMA's Civil Security Division stated in a 1983 conference that he saw FEMA's role as a "new frontier in the protection of individual and governmental leaders from assassination, and of civil and military installations from sabotage and/or attack, as well as prevention of dissident groups from gaining access to U.S. opinion, or a global audience in times of crisis.""

-In a time of crisis you become a communist state; Congress can't say dick in 6 months; And gaging of dissidents so that the rest of the country/world can't hear their views on the situation!

"Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - US Marine Corps Base - Presently home to 30,000 Mariel Cubans and 40,000 Albanians. Total capacity unknown."
-40000 Albanian boatrefugees crossed the Mediteranian and then the Atlantic ocean! WTF are they doing there?

"current Poll: Should the Council on Foreign Relations be Investigated for Treason?"
-Yup.

 

[ohio]

these kids should be allowed to be intoxicated, stoned, tweeked, or in every form impaired so their resultant academic failures.

Hmmm... interesting theory. Hate to offer up anecdotes as a counter-argument but that's the easiest: my 2 brothers and I all used and abused alcohol and pot during high-school. The only thing that endangered our academic or criminal records was getting caught. In fact the administration went out of their way to TRY to disrupt our otherwise exemplary academics as a result of getting caught. Barring that we were all top student athletes and contributors to the community. Do you think a little alcohol is a good reason to derail some kids entire future?

As a good conservative, shouldn't you leave it to parents to know there kids and decide when and how there should be an intervention in substance use?

 

[$tinkle]

Hmmm... interesting theory. Hate to offer up anecdotes as a counter-argument but that's the easiest: my 2 brothers and I all used and abused alcohol and pot during high-school. The only thing that endangered our academic or criminal records was getting caught. In fact the administration went out of their way to TRY to disrupt our otherwise exemplary academics as a result of getting caught. Barring that we were all top student athletes and contributors to the community. Do you think a little alcohol is a good reason to derail some kids entire future?

i also used & abused quite heavily in high school. i do not attribute my "success" in never getting caught in my own craftiness (recall i was high), but rather a disengaged parent & seemingly apathetic substance abuse policy at school.

As a good conservative, shouldn't you leave it to parents to know there kids and decide when and how there should be an intervention in substance use?

that certainly seems to be a pillar of focus on the family's position - being engaged. i expect it's also shared by other faith- and non-faith-oriented parenting organizations.

can't make your kids take everything you say as being more worthwhile than the never-ending social pressures of a school environment. as we can both attest, there are some things only experience can teach.

 

[DRB]

Yeah, I've heard it was more but didn't remember exactly how many and therefore kept it low.

" The Rex 84 Program was established on the reasoning that if a "mass exodus" of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA."
-It's them damn dirty Mexicans effinit up for you good, clean, honest and hard working people again.

This one was my favorite decree:
"EXECUTIVE ORDER 11921

allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money in U.S. financial institution in any undefined national emergency. It also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President, Congress cannot review the action for six months. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has broad powers in every aspect of the nation. General Frank Salzedo, chief of FEMA's Civil Security Division stated in a 1983 conference that he saw FEMA's role as a "new frontier in the protection of individual and governmental leaders from assassination, and of civil and military installations from sabotage and/or attack, as well as prevention of dissident groups from gaining access to U.S. opinion, or a global audience in times of crisis.""

-In a time of crisis you become a communist state; Congress can't say dick in 6 months; And gaging of dissidents so that the rest of the country/world can't hear their views on the situation!

"Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - US Marine Corps Base - Presently home to 30,000 Mariel Cubans and 40,000 Albanians. Total capacity unknown."
-40000 Albanian boatrefugees crossed the Mediteranian and then the Atlantic ocean! WTF are they doing there?

"current Poll: Should the Council on Foreign Relations be Investigated for Treason?"
-Yup.

Its a joke. Conspriacy theoriest have been recycling these "concentration" camps for the last 35 years.

And the quote in the blurb about 11921 you quoted is not a quote from the order. And the best part is that it was signed by Gerald Ford 30 years ago..... Again they have been recycling all this crap for the last 30 years.